Dewey
placed three clear knocks on Pastor Tony’s office door and waited.
When pastor opened the door he saw two older men in clean worn
clothes. One of the men only stared at the floor. The other man
looked at the young pastor and said, “Mister Reverend, I’m Dewey
and this here’s Larado. He hasn’t talked since the flood of ’72
took his wife and little daughter. We want to ask your permission.”
Tony
put on his best smile and gestured the men to come in his office.
Dewey glanced in the office door. Neither man took a step inside.
Dewey held his hands up shoulder high in a stop position. He said,
“Beggin’ yer pardon sir but we’ll not go in your office. Larado
doesn’t cotton to any office fancier’n a pot-belly stove or a
shade tree.”
In
a cheerful tone Tony said, “Hey that works for me. Come with me, I
got just the thing.” As the three walked toward a courtyard shade
tree, Tony noticed Dewey never moved his left arm. It seemed to just
hang free. Larado still never made eye contact with Tony.
The
young pastor put a small red handkerchief half way into his sport
shirt pocket. This was his sign to all his staff even from day one –
‘do not disturb me’. As the three sat on the ground in the shade
Tony asked Dewey, “Fellas, I have a favor to ask. Will you both
call me Tony if I call you Dewey and Larado?” The agreement was
made.
Somewhere
in the conversation a little dog walked up to Larado and started to
lick the very quiet old man’s face. Larado began to caress the
plain little dog that a flea wouldn’t give a second glance.
Obviously the dog had never learned Tony’s ‘do not disturb’
sign; you know, the red handkerchief.
Pastor
spoke first with, “Dewey you said you wanted my permission… ask
away.” “Mister Reverend…er…I mean Tony… Larado and me
aren’t any good at doin’ most things you need done. But our
mamas raised us doers and no excuses. Well, we heard one of the
Sunday school classes for youngin’s was going to start making some
stuff out of cardboard. We’re here to volunteer to help with the
cuttin’ ‘n pastin’.”
“I’ll
tell you right up front, Larado doesn’t even know what a computer
is, and I’m half afraid of the fool things. But me and my best
friend here figured that anything made out of paste and cardboard is
as harmless as that little pup-dog. With my one bad arm I’d have to
have one of the little hearts hold the cardboard while I cut it.
‘Course I’m great at one armed huggin’”.
The
three stood up as Tony promised he’d think and pray about it.
They’d get their answer in a few days. Dewey and Larado walked away
with the dog taggin’ along. The young pastor leaned against the
shade tree slowly rotating a leaf in his fingers. In his mind he
asked the leaf, “Is this what flour power is? It bonds two pieces
of paper together and also bonds silver-haired people wanting to do
something important with children needing someone to care?
As
he began walking back inside the church he shook his head. He
thought, “Boy oh boy. College never taught me about Flour Power.”
He stopped past the kitchen, made himself a cup of tea and picked up
a brand muffin just beggin’ to be shown some attention. The office
area was unoccupied as he went in his office, closed his office door
almost all the way and took a seat in his high back chair.
His
eyes scanned his shelves of books and said to himself, “Maybe I
need to start a diary that says, “My life with Flour Power…” No
sooner had he got the words out of his mouth than his eyes rested on
his sermon notes and the red penciled words at the bottom of the
paper:
The
pastor turned his cell phone off, got out of his chair, went to the
door, and quietly closed it all the way. He knelt at the sofa and
folded his hands. What a perfect time for knee listenin’.
